[Author's Note:
thor94: I don't know if Wilkins acquired any research materials when writing, but the sources that I use that claims that are canon tell that Sol and Cyrannus system are only 3,000ly between each other , also I also use the fact that the milky way is only around 105,700ly in diameter, and I you add that theColonial military jump travel speed is only 400ly per day, it would only take around 265 days for them to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. If they the Colonial never found out about Sol system's location, and between 100 to 400 billion (I placed the number as 380 billion for the purpose ofthis story) stars in our galaxy alone to search, it would have taken the Colonials centuries to find Sol, if they search each system one by one.]
Chapter 14: Meetings
While the Colonial news media was still going crazy, covering every detail about the upcoming meetting, between themselves and their lost cousins. They were covering all the work that was going into preparing Caprica City for the arrival.
They had multiple broadcast hours going over the selection of music, movies and art work to display or perform when t he Tau'Ri came, the news outlets even covered the process of cleaning up the trash across the city. Little did their counterparts on Earth could not even care less about the Colonials, they cave them about a quick mention every three hours on the 24h broadcast streams, and evening and nightly news broadcasts didn't even cover them. They instead covered the advanced technologies and different worlds that were now open fully to them.
Only days after the Unveiling, twenty more nations petitioned to join the Tau'Ri wile nine others were signing the UNTC treaty. Al the while government officials were sent out on recruiting missions to visy people with vital skills tat was needed on Valhalla. The Tau'Ri government was offering free moving and housing and higher average wages in order to convince people to move. In the end however, they more people calling in to volunteer to Valhalla in one day then what they expected to get in one whole month,
So when the first group of people that were selected to move to Valhalla, the news agencies where there and broadcasting it live. The government had assembled a group of three hundred and fifty civilians in a military base just outside of Sidney, Australia. The group only had personal affects and a changes of clothes with them, rest of their belongings were already on its way by cargo ship. They all watched as the 'Gate were beamed in from its publicly unknown location. Within moments of the 'Gate's appearance, it activated and the first group moved through it. This first group that was being sent was made of mostly miners and their families, who would now be mining Naquadah and other materials on Valhala.
The news broadcasts watched as the civilians were walked through the liquidesqe event horizon, and once they were through the 'Gate beamed away to a different military base were Military Personnel was waiting. They moved out so fast that the media didn't got a wind of if. After that the 'Gate was beamed to China to pickup another group of civilians.
On a secret moonbase, a flash of light filled the air as the sixty eight year old Chief Marshall Jack O'Neill appeared inside a massive oval shaped room. Thanks to modern technologies, he looked at least ten years younger, but he knew that his retirement was only a few years away. The back of his head was counting down the day to the day he could just sit down on the dock at his lake with fishing pole in hand, maybe get a dog as well.
"Welcome to the SGC, Marshall O'Neill." saluted a greeter.
Marshall O'Neill looked around the perfectly clan room, surrounding him where multiple flags of member nations if the Commonwealth each guarded by a soldier clad in the dress uniform of the now defunct army of each nation. He looked at the floor, and saw a picture of Earth within a Stargate inlaid in Italian tile, and out of a window he saw Earth silently floating above the lifeless surface of the Earth's moon.
"Marshall O'Neill?" inquired the greeter.
"Sorry but this isn't the SGC to me." admitted Marshall O'Neill. He knew the reasons why, the had to move the SGC an the Stargate to the moon, it made political and military sense, there could be only one Stargate in any starsystem and having it located within the borders of a single nation could be seen as favouritism as time went on. Besides, there were the all world-ending events that almost happened thanks to the 'Gate. So having the SGC on the moon made perfect sense, as it meant that it would reduce of that happening by several orders of magnitude. Even so, Marshall O'Neill missed the smell and feel of Cheyenne Mountain where the old SGC were back on Earth, which was in the process of becoming a museum.
"I understand, Sir." said the greeter. "Shall I show you the way to the meeting room, Sir?"
"Sure, that is why I'm here after all." confirmed Marshall O'Neill, and he was led towards one of the elevators, which led downwards to heart of the base.
It took any a few minutes, but soon they reached a large conference room, which like its counterpart in the old SGC, overlooked the Stargate's embarkation room. The room had also several new safety features the old SGC hadn't First, the 'Gate have a dual iris, a traditional metal one and an energy shield, just like Atlantis's 'Gate, there were also remote controlled AMR-15 turrets and if all fails the room could be opened to the vacuum of space.
"It is strange not seeing the 'Gate not at its usual place." noted Gen. Carter as she sat in her normal spot at one of the ends of table. Quickly Marshall O'Neill fond his at the other end, he looked around to see the various Commonwealth officials that were once members of the IOA along with Marshall Shepard.
"Ladies and Gentlemen shall we begin?" inquired Dr. Woolsey. "We have much to discuss, first the Grand Conference at Gaia."
"How many are coming now, Woolsey?" asked Marshall O'Neill.
"forty two." was the answer.
"The answer to life, universe and everything." laughed Marshall Shepard, and Marshall O'Neill quickly joined in as Gen. Carter put her forehead in her hand.
"The only book I have read she hasn't is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." explained Marshall O'Neill.
"Can we please focus." stated Dr. Woolsey as he tried to get the meeting back on track. "Now most worlds shouldn't be have much issues to bring the table, they just want a world of their own and the freedom of trade as they pleasure. The major players though are the Free Jaffa Nations and the Grand Alliance of Freed Worlds."
"How many factions are they split into now?" inquired Marshall Shepard.
"Seven." reported Dr. Woolsey. "It seems that their attempts to reform has failed again. Luckily they aren't in rush to fight each other and the hold us and the Tok'Ra in high regard."
"The issue is the Grand Alliance, it has fractured into ten or more different groups. Added a British official. The Grand Alliance of Freed Worlds were an Tau'Ri sponsored attempt to unify Goa'Uld slave worlds into a coherent government five years prior. However, after a year of attempting to get the Alliance to form, it had collapses into various factions, just like their Jaffa counterparts. "And thanks to influence from the Lucian Alliance, several of them are openly aggressive towards us, the only real respite is that those groups are smaller than the other factions, who are more interested in making peace with us and becoming a real government over their respective territories."
"In essence these two groups are much like the Israelis and the Palestinians until the signing of the Treaty of Moscow settled the issues." added a Chinese official. Every one around the table knew, that the major reason of why the Grand Conference was happening was the constant border disputes between the various factions.
"The Jaffa Nations have more ships and better experience than the Gran Alliance factions." reported Marshall O'Neill, without pointing out that, combined both factions had more ships by at least three orders of magnitude.
"Correct, but it was mostly human slaves that made those ships." explained a German official. Only one Free Jaffa faction has Jaffa with shipbuilding experience, that means that the number of hulls the Free Jaffa has can only, more or less go down, while the number of Grand Alliance hulls can go up. The main issue that the Grand Alliance have is the lack of qualified sailors to man them, they knew how to build them, but how they work, the problem is and vice versa among the Jaffa. At best, the highest average education you can find out there, is about the same as peasants in Middle Age Europe."
"Thank you for the insight, now, can we go over the details of each group?" inquired Gen. Carter.
At the same time in Caprica City a different meeting was taking place inside the Presidential Mansion. The whole meeting was dedicated to the planning for the arrival of the Tau'Ri which was only a few days away.
"So, all our forces will be on alert, multiple squadrons of Vipers and Raptors will be combat ready ether in the air or on the runway waiting to take off." read Pres. Adar out loud from the planned outline of security measures Colonial Military was proposing. "And an armoured tank division and two mobile infantry divisions. Isn't that a bit of a overkill, Gen Roose?"
"Its better safe than sorry, sir." countered Gen. Roose. "And one oft those infantry divisions are our medical and biowarfare divisions."
"Why is that General?" asked Sec. Roslin.
"We are dealing with contact with a new world, Laura." reported Sec. of Health. "They could carry diseases that we never been exposed to, it could cause an devastating outbreak. The medical division is there on the rare case it does happens between the Tau'Ri delegation or us."
"Make sense, when one thinks about it Laura." confirmed Pres. Adar as flipped the page. "What is this 'Operation Insight' all about?"
"Mr. President, we need to know more about the Tau'Ri and if they are our cousins or not." stated Sec. of Defence. "'Operation Insight' is an intelligence gathering mission."
"You want what? To place listening equipment in the hotel rooms we are setting aside for them?" asked Pres. Adar. "These are our cousins?"
"Who else are there" said the Sec. of Religious Affairs. "The Sacred Scrolls say no one else is there."
"Have you ever heard of the Libran Conjecture, Keres?" asked the Sec, of Minority Relations his Sagittaron colleague, as Sec. Roslin made a faint smile at the mention of it.
"No Yeshua." answered Sec. of Religious Affairs. "Enlighten me and our colleagues."
"It is a equation on the probability of Alien life by taking account of stellar formation, chance of habitable worlds be formed, the chance of them evolving sentient life and how long such life lasts. It was made by Libran priest of the Order of Athena, who killed himself after running calculations on the equation. It says that the possibility of only one species evolving in the galaxy was next to zero, while the possibility of 10,000 species that exist at any time is however almost 70%."
"Poppycock Yeshua."
"If I may interject." said Gen. Roose. "In theory, the Colonial Navy have operating that the latter number is correct. Secretary. And what we have managed to translate of the Wireless broadcasts from Raluch, suggests, that the Tau'Ri are much older culture than us."
"How much General." asked Sec. Roslin.
"At least by another 4,000 years ma'am. We can't say for sure, there is a lot of talk about the defunct Goa'Uld empire, Asgard and the Ori."
"Ori?" inquired the Sec. of Minority Affairs.
"Yes, sir." said Gen. Roose. "I thought you recognize the name."
"Who are they, Yeshua?" asked Sec. Roslin.
"There are a race of fallen angels or fallen Eudeamons you might call them, that are mentioned in the texts of New Apocrypha." answered the Sec. of Minority Affairs. "Nothing much is known about them though."
"Well, here is piece of good news for you then." said Gen. Roose. "According to the translations, they are all dead."
"How?"
"We don't know yet, Secretary."
"We are getting on a tangent here." pointed the Press Secretary out. "Is it just having us spy on them can cause a war, General? We need to make a better impression on our cousins after what Adm. Cain did."
"Ma'am, the Tau'Ri are doing recon mission on us, how else would they know how long the day on Caprica is." countered the Sec. of Defence. "We need to carry out our own, that is what 'Operation Insight' is all about."
"I see that there is second part of this operation." read Pres. Adar as he looked at the outline of "Operation Insight". "You want to send a recon mission to Raluch to confirm the location of Valhalla."
"Yes Mr. President. This isn't going be a manned mission, only drones." explained Sec. of Defence. "We will launch the drones and they will carry out the recon mission to this world all on their own."
"Are you telling us that you have AI drones?" asked the senior member of the Quorum.
"No, it is nothing more than a camera trap that hunter would would put out, with a small computer with preprogrammed jump coordinates and that times the jumps." explained the Sec. of Defence.
"I am not sure about this plan of yours." said the Vice President as she leaned back. "To send those recon drones across the red line could bring the Cylons down on us, and that isn't taking into account the fact it could upset the Tau'Ri."
"And if it is a Cylon trick, those people we saw could be nothing more than computer generated image similar to those found in the movies." countered the Sec. of Defence. "We need to gather information on who we are dealing with."
"Is there any chance that the drone could be detected?" inquired Pres. Adar.
"No sir." confirmed the Sec. of Defence. "None at all."
Pres. Adar rubbed his chin for a moment to contemplate.
"Okay, send three drones." ordered Pres. Adar. "And only three, not the twenty you wanted."
"Mr. President, with only three, we may not get al the information we need about the system." explained Gen. Roose.
"But once we know whether or not this is the system is the Valhalla's system, we can go from there, General." countered Pres. Adar, and Gen. Roose nodded his head. "Alright, let us move on, Laura?"
"My people have gone through potential sites for the welcoming dinner, from the front lawn of the Presidential Mansion to the Art Centre." started Sec. Roslin. "Now we want to show them our culture but not shoving it up in their faces, besides it can construed as rude, it could be insulting to them and make them feel unwelcomed. We need to introduce them to our culture slowly,"
There was several heads that nodded in agreement with the Secretary of Education.
"Then what is your recommendation?" asked Pres. Adar his Secretary of Education.
"A simple but formal dinner at the Colonial Zoo." stated Sec. Roslin. "It has just been renovated, and it will show off the wildlife of our worlds and it avoid any potential issues of which planet's specific culture gets to be shown first to our cousins."
"I like it, Laura" confirmed Pres. Adar as he played the event out in head, yes the zoo was a little outside of Caprica City, but it was the best place. "Make it happen."
Back at the SGC, the meeting had moved to the next point on the docket, and it was the final operations against the remaining wraith warbands. Since it was Marshall Shepard's bailiwick, he was taking the lead.
"Now allow me to introduce you to Sera, located at the farthest edge of the Pegasus Galaxy." reported Marshall Shepard as a holographic image of a typical blue green planet was projected over the table. "It has a population of 5.7 million making the most populated planet in the Pegasus and so far the Wraith hasn't hit yet."
"Why is that, John?" inquired Gen. Carter.
"It is so far from the normal Wraith feeding grounds it would take a hive weeks to get there." explained Marshall Shepard. "So they would let the population grow to their maximum, while the Wraith hibernate, then it would serve as a final feast before the big sleep."
"And why haven't we heard of this world earlier?" asked Dr. Woolsey.
"They didn't have the 'Gate." explained Marshall Shepard. "And its distance made it a low priority for contact."
"And go on." said Marshall O'Neill.
"They are as we were in 1970s and seemed to be very happy that were other people out there besides the Wraith." continued Marshall Shepard as he tapped a stylus on the wooden table. "Now ever since we began installing warning systems over planets, the Wraith haven't gotten the amount of humans needed to keep themselves alive, which is why they have fought each other as much as we have fought them.
"Since the Wraith haven't gotten to know the act that we have given the people of Sera a 'Gate, they are going to think that they have a ready supply of humans trapped. The Wraiths' need for food is so desperate that we got eight of the remaing twenty hive ships and their escorts heading towards Sera. We estimate we got about hundred ships from at least five different Wraith factions, So they should fight each other when they arrive in two weeks time."
"That long, John?" asked Gen. Carter.
"As I say, it is at the very edge of the Pegasus." restated Marshall Shepard. "But it doesn't matter, we can strike a blow there that would cripple the remaining Wraith warbands and if we use the weapons we have developed, we will be able to trap them at Sera."
"New weapons? Are you talking about the Dreadnoughts because going up against a hundred Wraith ships are not a winning plan." countered a British official.
"A few years ago we came across an Ancient warship called the Aurora, where the crew had been in cryp sleep since the Ancient-Wraith War, and had their minds linked into a computer system." explained Marshall Shepard. "The ship was carrying information on a weakness in Wraith technology which could have turned the tide if the Ancients had the time to implement it. A Wraith scout had managed to remove it from the computers, but McKay thinks he has redevelop it. It has worked in all the lab tests and on a Wraith cruiser in the field."
"The Wraith has no idea that we have this weapon and they havn't gonr up against our new Dreadnoughts, that in itself will a major surprise for them." added Marshall O'Neill.
Back on Caprica City, Pres. Adar of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and his cabinet had covered the preperations for the arrival of thier cousins from Earth for the past few hours, but now they had an issue closer to home that needed to be taken care of was now dominated the discussion."
"Are you sure that Adm. Cain will not take a deal?" asked Pres. Adar.
"Sorry Mr. President, from what we have heard, even if the judges find her guilty, she will appeal to the Quorum." reported the Sec. of Justice, as Pres. Adad shook his head.
"Damn that woman to Tartarus, doesn't she realize that we have to put this behind us before our cousins arrive." snapped Pres. Adar.
"Mr. President, we have gotten some leaked information, that her lawyers may drop a subpoena on the Tau'Ri when they arrive so that she can get information from thier side." explained Sec. of Justice as the Pres. Adar and the rest of his cabinet blinked.
"She can't be serious. We don't need her to cause another conflict with our cousins."
"And it would also raise multiple issues about how much if any our legal system our cousins has."
"What issues man, they are a colony of Kobol and they have a seat at the table just like all the children of Lords of Kobol." stated the senior Quorum member from Gemenon. "They have no choice to follow the laws of the Colonies."
"We can't do that." stated the Sec. of Justice. "We need to treat them as an independent world, just as we did with Tauron before they joined. While they might, and I stress might, be willing to follow some of our laws, but they could easily say no and it wouldn't be anything we could do legally, or military."
The Gemenoneese Quorum member seamed to understand the words but did not accept it.
"How did she ever become an Admiral?" asked Pres. Adar his Sec. of Defence.
"She is the kind of battlefield commander we want in a war with he Cylons." explained the Sec. of Defence. "Capable and expendable, great if you are in need of a Admiral in charge of a suicide mission. It doesn't hurt either that she knew the right people and forged a lot of close friendships with multiple people in your predecessor's administration, including said President.
"Basically, she knew the right people." stated Pres. Adar
"Yes, and that she is a capable and expendable commander, if hotheaded." explained Gen. Roose.
"Hotheaded is a bit of an understatement." stated Pres. Adar, before looking at the Sec. fof Justice. " Is there anything we can do to put this behind us? Maybe early retirement or send her to some backwater command?"
"From what I've heard in the Halls of Justice, she will accept nothing less than a full public apology and reinstated at the command of her own Battlegroup." said the Sec. Justice, he took a deep breath as how he should tell the rest of the story. "The story that is going around, is that when the prosecution approached her about taking early retirement, she pulled out a knife and started to sharpen it, before telling the prosecution to frak off."
"Damn that woman, we can't have that." exclaimed Pres. Adar. "We can't celebrate the reunion of the tribes of man while Cain's hearing is going on. It will only draw attention to how we met not the potential future we may have."
"She has rights and when the judges find her guilty, and as a flag officer she can appeal directly to the Quorum to hold new hearings and after that there is the High Court." pointed the Sec. of Justice. "And that process could take months at best or years at worst.
"And we have days." sighed Pres. Adar, as he tried to get a handle on the prideful Vice Admiral. "Why is she doing this and why will she not go quietly into the night?"
"Mr. President, the judges insulted her sense of honour when they used her records against her." explained the Sec. of Justice. "She should have anticipated it would happen, as the GMDC judges hve full access to relevant military records during a hearing."
"So that is about we have today?" inquired Gen. Carter as the meeting came to a close. The meeting at the SGC had taken three hours and they ha covered multiple issues and u seemed that everything was covered.
"I think so." added the Chinese official as he and several other people stood up to leave.
"Actually we have one last issue." stated Dr. Woolsey, as he looked at the very bottom of his notes projected by his wristcom. "We have to deal with these Twelve Colonies of Kobol."
"They are a minor issue, almost not worthy of our time." stated the Chinese official. "From the reports I've read, they do have a lot of ships that are days away from Earth and Valhalla. A Ha'Tak can take them on one-on-one. Let have the team we send, settle the border and move on."
"That is one idea, however, so many people so close to us is cause for concern." noted the Japanese official. "We should try to make a trade deal with them."
"Maybe, but trade can wait until we have all other issues in the galaxy settled first." countered the Chinese Official.
"The border issue isn't much of an issue as their border barely brushes against ours, so it should be a quick issue to solve." reported Dr. Woolsey, as he looked at his notes. "The main issue, seems to be religious. These Colonials seem to honestly believe that Earth is a fellow colony of theirs."
This caused a big laugh to ring across the room.
"Well now, we know for sure that isn't true." stated the Chinese official with a laugh. "Except for Religion, what other issues are there?"
"From the information we have gathered so far, they have a strong radical element when it comes to religion, going so far to persecute religious minorities in the past." reported Dr. Woolsey sombrely.
"I can recall that we did the same a few times ours in the past." pointed a Brazilian official. "From what I have read about these worlds, that yes, they have some radical religious groups, but which world hasn't. So we should use their past as an example of what they can do in the future."
"True, what do we actually know about their current religious acceptance in their system?" inquired a Japanese official.
"We have no clear picture there:" reported Dr. Woolsey. "But what we do know is that two worlds, Sagittaron and Gemenon are more religious than the others, down to having apartheid laws on the books when it comes to minority religious. Intelligence experts believe that we should hide our mix of faiths from them."
"How the hell do we that Woolsey?" asked Marshall Shepard. "Do you know how of our history is tied to religion?"
"And hiding it may cause an even bigger issue." said the Chinese official. " "If we can't conceal our system of faiths, w may might as well embrace it. Tell them that we have multiple faiths and welcome all. We don't have to tell them that their faith in the Greek Pantheon isn't one of them first."
"I do believe that we should let Dr. Woolsey decide how he wants to handle things." offered a Japanese official. ""Since he is taking the lead of the diplomatic mission to these Colonials. Let him and his people get a feel of these people and make a decision accordingly. I believe that is all for this meeting"
The group at the table nodded their heads in agreement.
On the planet Darkness a used Tel'Tak saleaman was buttering up two new custumers. A loving Cymek couple. Darkness was an anomaly Grantville-Westerors system, for starters it was eight times as big as a normal planet with the mass to with it (and thanks to divine intervention still have 1g at 20km below sealevel) . In theory it was a Earth parallel. Except the fiction that gave the planet is name is at the south-west and upside down, south-east, upside-down and mirrored was Scion, with their respective Alaskas touching. North-west was the continent of Creation from the fiction called Exalted and east of Creation was Autochthon also from the fiction of Exalted. The only thing that connected the three pieces was that they shared publisher. Why Anubis wanted a world like this, no one can really tell.
"Here she is, in good condition I might add." said the Jaffa salesman while showing the couple a Tel'Tak. "And ready to fly."
"Hyper speed?" asked Zoe Greystone.
"1200ly per day Ma'am."
"And cost?" asked Tamara Adama
"20.000.000 credits."